so last night jessie and i went to this show in someone's huge attic. mainly to see Katy Davidson (aka Dear Nora) play. the opening act was this local kid Andy Poes (www.myspace.com/andypoes) and he was pretty cool if not ambitious. he had a laptop playing some beats and loops, while he sang, played acoustic guitar, keyboard, harmonica, and a small (but awesome) Moog. neato.

Dear Nora played next and what a interesting and perspective-changing set it was. i'd normally think of Dear Nora as a lo-fi acoustic act but she got right up there with an electric. her voice is still the sweetest thing ever and her guitaring was clean and loose. what surprised me moreso is that she only played (as far as i could tell) two of her own songs, the rest of the time she did covers and some awesome improv stuff. she was funny and entertaining. very unexpected but still a joy to watch.

Yacht was just this one guy who played with his laptop and maybe a sequencer and writhed around on a blanket. the closest i can come to a discription is Olivia Tremor Control's sound collage stuff mixed with Kid 606. lots of electro-pop melodies spliced and diced with attic-shakin beats and hyper-active samples.

The Blow, for what we stayed for, was more laptop backdrops with this girl freestyling over it. jessie's sugar was getting low so we took off. i was happy to have went, and i hope to goodness that this attic venue sticks around and puts on more shows, it beats driving to rochester or utica.

bort
np: Stooges

Who is Dear Nora? Never heard of her.

One of those deceptively simple/sweet-sounding indie pop bands that I take so much grief for daring to like.

From AMG (though outdated, as it doesn't mention her newer solo acoustic work...


The power pop/punk "cuddle-core" trio Dear Nora is comprised of Katy Davidson (vocals/guitar), Ryan Wise (bass), and Marianna Ritchey (drums). All three bandmembers had gone to college together at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR, where they had each played in various bands, including the Navins, Ring of Seventeen, and Junction City. Wise, Ritchey, and local Portland musician Jake Longstreth were also previously members of a group called Wolf Colonel, and Ritchey and Davidson were freshman-year roommates. They came together via a mutual love of short, guitar-driven songs and sweet girl group-inspired harmonies, as well as an appreciation for all types of '60s pop music. Group leader Davidson had started playing guitar in high school in her hometown in Arizona and began writing songs and singing by 1996. A few years later, in the summer of 1999, she formed Dear Nora, named after a college music professor who served as an inspiration to the group. The group initially recorded a few self-released cassettes before they issued a self-titled 7" single on the fine Portland indie pop label Magic Marker Records. This release was followed by another Magic Marker release, an eight-song all-acoustic single, "Dreaming Out Loud," which featured songs written and performed by Davidson during a 24-hour time period. In 2001, Dear Nora finally issued a debut album, We'll Have a Time, which was produced by the Aislers Set's Amy Linton (actually, it was recorded in Linton's basement). The album features their friend Longstreth on guitar (he also painted the album's cover art). We'll Have a Time was subsequently released in 2002 in Japan on WAH! Records and features all the songs from the Dreaming Out Loud EP as bonus tracks. Davidson eventually relocated to San Francisco, where she performs at solo shows